From the first meeting with potential
clients, Matthew Rathbun, ABR®,
executive vice president at Coldwell
Banker Elite in Fredericksburg, Va.,
employs technology. Using the Street
View tool on Google Maps, he helps
buyers preview subdivisions and get
a 360-degree view of neighborhoods
to narrow their likes and dislikes. He
also shares links to half a dozen mobile
apps to aid buyers in their search, apps
such as the iPMT mortgage calculator;

Sitegeist, o;ering area demographics,
commuting information, and housing
details; and DocuSign (a REALTOR
Benefits® Program partner) so they’ll
be ready to sign forms electronically
when they’ve found the house they
want. He also o;ers PDF neighborhood
and market activity reports that he
creates using the REALTORS Property
Resource®, a property-rich database
available at no cost to members of the
National Association of REALTORS®.

When buyers tour homes, he hands
them an iPad loaded with more apps,
like GreatSchools Finder (to find school
test scores and ratings), CrimeMapping
(to find crime activity near a current
location), and HomeStyler (enabling
them to snap a photograph of a room
and design it virtually).

“Buyers are able to make quickerdecisions and feel more comfortablewith the process,” says Rathbun, aninstructor with the Real Estate Buyer’sAgent Council (REBAC). “They haveless buyer’s remorse because they’vehad access to all of the informationthey need to make a decision.”REBAC realizes the critical roletechnology plays in helping movebuyers forward. It’s providing agentswith broader training throughout itsdesignation courses on how to masterthe latest technologies, Here are a fewof the essentials covered in the training.

Branded mobile apps: Mobile applications are used by 68 percent
of new-home shoppers during their
search, according to the 2013 “Digital
House Hunt” study conducted by NAR
and Google. Companies like Smarter
Agent will build an app with your own
branding alongside MLS listings. Users
can hunt for homes in multiple ways
using GPS-based searches or lifestyle
features like proximity to restaurants.

Cloud-based tools: Leveraging the
cloud gives you easy access to your
information and the ability to sync files
across mobile devices. Cloud-based
customer relationship management
systems allow you to access your
contact database from anywhere.
Cloud services for document storage,
like Box, Carbonite, and Google Drive,
can make sharing files with clients a
snap. “Evernote and Google Drive are
amazing tools for replacing [Microsoft]
O;ce on your mobile devices for file
storage and running a paperless business,” says Craig Grant, a real estate
tech instructor with The Real Estate
Technology Institute. For example, with
Evernote, you can create a notebook
to share with your clients that contains
all of the information on the properties you’ve toured, including notes and
photos, says Nate Ellis, ABR®, a REBAC
instructor and director of education
and training at the Contra Costa Association of REALTORS® in the San
Francisco East Bay area.

Hyperlocal websites: Let buyers drilldeeper into a community throughhyperlocal data at your website. Thiscould include links to local schools orblog posts about property tax rates.“Having relevant, local, and niche con-tent on your site—updated regularly—isvital if you want to show up high organi-cally on search engines,” Grant says.

Digital transaction management: Be
able to process a transaction electronically and gather e-signatures on o;ers
or addendums to move transactions
forward from anywhere. Contract and
form management systems—like DocuSign Transaction Rooms, zipForms
from zipLogix (a REALTOR Benefits®
Program partner), DotLoop, and App-Files—along with e-signing capabilities,
from the likes of DocuSign and Authen-tisign, are becoming essential tools
for buyer’s agents to process o;ers
on the spot. Transaction management
systems like GoConnect can provide
checklists and reminders to keep your
transactions on pace.

Video: Eighty-six percent of respondents to the NAR/Google study said
they like videos to learn more about a
community. “Not enough agents are
leveraging video,” Grant says. Several programs are making it easier to
shoot, edit, and upload videos, such
as video editor apps like Videolicious,
Magisto, and Animoto Video Maker.
Also, UStream can be used for live
video streaming if, say, you want to
walk your international or out-of-town
clients through a home, Rathbun notes.
Buyer’s agents are also using video to
introduce themselves, detail the buying
process, and show testimonials. “Use
video to build yourself up as that community resource,” Ellis says.